Europe not willing to address root cause of refugee crisis: Pundit

Press TV has conducted an interview with Ken Fero, a lecturer at Coventry University from London, to discuss the European Union's response to the current influx of refugees from the war-ravaged countries in Africa and Middle East.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: There is obviously great deal of criticism as to matter which the European Union as a whole and specific countries have been conducting their refugee policies, mainly their central policy of blocking further entry and the influx; yet, we see these refugees and war-ravaged people still coming in. Now, does this not show that the solution, if any, has to be thought elsewhere rather than stopping their entry into the European Union?

Fero: Yes, I think we have to look at the roots of the problem and as you said the solution has to be found back where problem lies. Of course, any refugees that come to Europe should be treated under the conventions but I think we have to go back to the cause of this problem. The problem of imperialism, the results of imperialism, and the fact that Europe has been built on the slaughter of others.

We shouldn’t forget that only in the 19th century, 10 million Congolese were killed by the Belgians, the European Belgians, before that the Spanish and the Portuguese slaughtered many many millions in Latin America and even in the 20th centurym the Europeans were slaughtering each other and bringing everybody else into two world wars. So, this is the background of this situation and anybody that expects sanctuary in Europe is really now looking at the barrel of a gun.

Press TV: Don’t you think that there could be some intrinsic and internal circumstances that could lead to finding a solution other than the external policies that those countries and EU as a whole could be pursuing in these war-ravaged countries?

Fero: The issue is internal and external. The problems in the war-ravaged countries have origins in European policies and you can’t just put a small bandage over a gaping wound and I think that problem has to be dealt with. In the meantime, of course people need to be allowed into Britain, allowed into Europe and given the sanctuary that they are asking for and that has to be done immediately and the way that some European countries are behaving is completely unacceptable.

To see images of people, of children, of elderly people, of men and women drowning in the sea in between Africa and Europe is quite shocking and horrific and this is not the first time that it has happened. Thousands and thousands and thousands over the past year to two years and so that has to be dealt with very urgently and I think when you have statements from the British prime minister, for instance last year about the need to stabilize Libya; Libya being so-called source of one route of refugees. I think you have to question this idea of stabilization. Libya is unstable today because of what Britain, France and other European countries did last year and the years before.

Press TV: Do you think the European Union as a whole and certain countries within it do enjoy that political will to achieve that end?

Fero: I think Europe has the will to do much more than it has done already. You can see what Europe did in terms of providing finance, Turkey, for example, when it became politically necessary for them to provide that finance for refugees from Syria. Of course that is another issue and many people have criticized that deal.

So, I think the resources are there, but the will is not there, and part of the problem is that the demonization of the refugees, the building up of this other image of people who don’t have while the Europeans somehow being a threat. It is a big problem in the media here and it is feeding a kind of racism which we have seen the political results of in terms of Austria, for example, and many of the countries across the Europe and I think that is a very serious issue as well, because those parties could justify the deaths of many many more.

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